Monrovia — On his 100th day in power, the chairman of Liberia's transitional government, Gyude C. Bryant, held a tête-à-tête with editors of Liberian newspapers on the back porch of the Executive Mansion. The discussion, facilitated by the minister-designate of information, culture and tourism, Dr. C. William Allen, was candid and was followed by an off-record session.
During this latter part of the discussion, journalists exchanged views with Bryant on several thorny issues. Although I had been in Monrovia for close to two weeks, it was my first encounter with the new Liberian leader. I came away with the impression that Bryant takes his job seriously and that he expects the warring factions to be honorable and carry out on their part of the deal.
During the on-the-record part of the meeting, a journalist asked Bryant why he had not yet deployed superintendents in counties yet to be taken over by the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). His response was that those areas were not considered safe for him to visit, and since he couldn't be safe there, he was not about to appoint anyone and put them in harm's way. This writer followed up with another question that included a reminder of the tactics used by the warring factions in the 1990s.
From 1993 to 1997, warring factions hijacked Liberia's economy and politics. They entered government by the back door - with their big guns - appointed low-level and obedient followers to the government, and maintained a firm grip on areas under their control. While exerting control on the government through their surrogates at the Executive Mansion, they maintained their positions as warlords in Gbarnga, Bomi and Bassa. They enriched themselves beyond anyone's imagination. They sold their allotted cabinet positions to desperate politicos hungry for recognition and, when convenient, accused the government of being ineffective and demanded new peace talks to usher in new administrations.
David Kpomakpor, Wilton Sankawulo and Ruth Perry were all used by warring factions to get rich and create a political space. When the biggest gun of all - Charles Taylor - got tired of the game, Ecowas, under the control of Nigerian leader Sani Abacha, organized a charade and declared Taylor an "elected" president.
Fast forward to January 2004. The new warring factions have much less space than their predecessors. It is no longer a Nigerian dictator wielding influence in Monrovia but the UN Security Council, with three of its strongest members involved in the Liberian peace process - Great Britain, France and the United States. Great Britain does not want its success story in Sierra Leone to go awash. France wants to make sure that its once stable and prosperous former-colony and regional powerhouse Côte d'Ivoire does not slide to the level of Liberia.
Under these circumstances, one would expect that the warring factions would understand that they no longer control the game, even if, for minor issues such as jobs and cars, the international community may give them what they want to achieve peace.
The call to remove Chairman Bryant came from Sekou Damateh Conneh of the warring faction known as Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (Lurd).He is playing the oldest game in politics: when one is losing control, the best thing to do is to create a distraction. For two years, Conneh maintained control of Lurd from his base of operation in Guinea, thanks a close relationship between his wife, Aisha Conneh, and Guinea's president, Lansanah Conte. He managed to sideline the founders of the movement and reign supreme, both in Guinea and in Lofa County, with a ragtag army of "generals."
But when the moment arrived to push Taylor out and go to peace talks in Accra, Conneh could not come up with people capable of representing the movement. Ecowas, through the Sierra Leonean government, brought in people like Joe Wylie, Lavela Suppuwood, Kabineh Janeh and Vamba Kaneh, the founders of Lurd, who were living either in Sierra Leone or the United States.
According to a plan concocted by some Ecowas operatives before the Accra talks began, Conneh was to be named as one of two vice-presidents who would work with Charles Taylor during a two-year transitional government. However, things took another turn when Taylor's indictment was unsealed on the first day of the conference and the President George Bush followed up by demanding Taylor's ouster.
According to a clause in the peace accord that was agreed in Accra, no leader of a warring faction could head the new government, so Conneh lost out.. However, he managed to hold onto control in Guinea and continued to pull strings and approve appointments for slots allocated to Lurd by the agreement. That is, until his recent estrangement from his wife and consequent problems with President Conte. No longer welcomed in Guinea, he returned to Monrovia after spending three months in Dakar.
With his position in Lurd eroding, Conneh had tried using disgruntled members of the other warring faction, Model, to mount a campaign against Bryant, not only to camouflage his loss of control of Lurd but also to extract jobs that he could put on the market. Model has denied being party to the call to remove Bryant and as far as the former GOL is concerned, the Secretary General of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Whitfield said that they are committed to the success of this transitional government.
Conneh was able to create this confusion with the help of George Dweh, the erratic speaker of the transitional assembly who has taken it upon himself to run the executive branch of government from his office on Capitol Hill. The speaker seems not to understand his role and that of the institution he heads, and he and and Conneh do not seem to understand the fragility of the current situation in Liberia.
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In Monrovia, anyone with a few bucks can purchase a headline in any number of newspapers. Philip Wesseh, the managing editor of The Inquirer, one of the most credible newspapers in Monrovia, told us that no publication in Monrovia could sell even close to 1000 copies a day. In their scramble to make ends meet, these newspapers become easy mouthpieces to disgruntled and fading warlords or self-serving politicos whose only agenda is self-aggrandizement.
Conneh's call for the removal of Chairman Bryant was nothing but a veiled blackmail for new jobs and material incentives. When the story hit the newspapers in Monrovia, few people stopped to think about it. The real issue under discussion in the city was, who controls Lurd - Damateh Conneh or his wife.? The Lurd group that attended the Accra talks and is now in the government wants Conneh removed from his post. Conneh's estranged wife, who as the conduit to President Conteh secured the arms and logistics that allowed Lurd to carry out its warfare, wants a role in deciding who serves in the government. The next job slots at assistant ministers level are what the fight is about.
Liberians are busy putting their lives back together and thus are unlikely to take their cues from fading warlords or ambitious politicians. Once UNIMIL troops are able to spread out across the country, those who have brought such suffering to our country will no longer have territory or armed combatants under their control and their capacity to upset the political process will be greatly diminished.
